I have been monitoring these boards for awhile now, but I've just recently created an account and this is my first post.

The question I have is: How much improvement can be expected from the start of LSAT prep until the day of the test?

I am taking the October LSAT and have allocated 4 months to studying for it. I have a really great friend who did extremely well on the LSAT and is now actually working for an LSAT tutoring firm. She set me up with a Google calender that details the study assignments for every day until the test. The study schedule is thorough and appears to cover everything in 2.5 months, while giving me the last 6 weeks to do PTs.

With that said, I had a really low diagnostic test. I scored a 148. This was before performing any studying or glancing at any of the books. While I appreciate the potential for improvement, and I undoubtedly have since taking that test, I feel really anxious when I see all of the high initial diagnostic scores posted on these forums.

So, is it unheard of for people to improve 20 plus points after their first diagnostic?

CR2012 wrote:So, is it unheard of for people to improve 20 plus points after their first diagnostic?

No, it is not. Many dedicated people that study smart and study hard with good prep methods, materials, and especially with the advice of a good class/teacher/tutor do it every year. However, 20+ points is significantly above average improvement.

Don't stress out or be intimidated by the posts on this board of scores people have claimed in posts. The users that post are an unrepresentative sample. Some of them lie about their score progress to brag, try to impress, intimidate others, or didn't take their first practice test under honest simulated test day conditions.

Put as much time and effort into preparing properly as you can, take advantage of help your friend will provide, etc., do the homework, and see how it goes. Your score range might not jump up right away early in the prep process, but you started in a decent range with a cold virgin run diagnostic that indicates it is more likely with quality prep that you can significantly improve and achieve a much higher score with an above average improvement on test day, provided you put in the time and effort.

As a long term LSAT teacher and tutor I've known and worked with many people that scored 20+ points higher on test day than their first cold run diagnostic. From start to finish when I started prepping from virgin cold first diagnostic having never seen an LSAT before to achieved test day score I went up 26 points, 151 diagnostic to 177 achieved test day score.

Try not to stress about it during the process. The stress, pressure and freaking out about it can impair your performance.

Don't stress out or be intimidated by the posts on this board of scores people have claimed in posts. The users that post are an unrepresentative sample. Some of them lie about their score progress to brag, try to impress, or intimidate others.

Really? You think this happens? That's just asinine.

To the OP: while the improvement probably isn't typical, the amount of studying TLSers do also isn't typical. Get the best study materials (PS Bibles, Manhattan guides, Cambridge packets, etc.) and study intelligently, thoroughly reviewing your mistakes, and a 20+ improvement is definitely a possibility. TLS is actually a great resource not only for finding these guides but for finding people who know the test well to use when something trips you up.

Don't stress out or be intimidated by the posts on this board of scores people have claimed in posts. The users that post are an unrepresentative sample. Some of them lie about their score progress to brag, try to impress, or intimidate others.

Really? You think this happens? That's just asinine.

To the OP: while the improvement probably isn't typical, the amount of studying TLSers do also isn't typical. Get the best study materials (PS Bibles, Manhattan guides, Cambridge packets, etc.) and study intelligently, thoroughly reviewing your mistakes, and a 20+ improvement is definitely a possibility. TLS is actually a great resource not only for finding these guides but for finding people who know the test well to use when something trips you up.

Yes really, I know it happens. It's asinine for people to do but some do it anyways for whatever reasons. Spoiler alert, people don't always tell the truth, especially in posts on anonymous internet discussion forums.

I've even had instances in live classes I've taught during review sessions for proctored diagnostics when I've overheard students telling others in the class a lie about the score they achieved on it while I'm holding and looking at the instructor report of the score each student achieved (when the students had their score reports in hand from the test for the review session) where some students were lying to others before class or during break.

The diagnostic really doesn't mean as much as you may think. Having not glanced at the material, it's really not a good indicator of how well you'll do. Just stock up on prep material and get going.

A good place to start is with the Logical Reasoning sections since it comprises of half the test. Take it slow and steady making sure you can do each problem type. Once you feel comfortable, you can take apart a few tests and start practicing doing a whole section. Afterwards, go over your mistakes and why you made them and rinse and repeat until you start pulling -0 to -2 on each section.

But for what the poster above said, PTs cannot be very reliable. You'll have to mix up your environments to see how your nerves will affect you. Maybe drive 30 minutes away to a library and sit down and take it under timed and unfamiliar environmental settings.

If you want to be thorough, you might want to delve a bit deeper into the PTs, mainly the Logic Games.

I got crushed in June because I had just been looking at the most recent tests towards the latter part of my studying and the questions on the June exam were very similar to the LSATS in the 10-20 range (in my opinion). I was totally caught off guard. Not saying that it will happen in October, but I'm definitely going to refamiliarize myself with those types so there aren't any surprises this time.